16 April 2018. The public reading and the discussion with the author are part of the "The other book at the Uni" series. Andreas Härter, Associate Professor of German Literature and Language, will moderate the event. Admission is free.

The book
"Travelling is bungee jumping for the soul": Helge Timmerberg lived the life of a global nomad long before this term as much as existed. He found his profession as a seventeen-year-old in India, has since reported from all over the world, always goes the whole hog and tries out everything.

After his autobiography entitled Die rote Olivetti (The red Olivetti), his new book returns to reports which reveal his unbridled curiosity and his passion for being en route: on the streets on which he feels alive – like Barcelona's Ramblas, which separates the old town into licit and illicit, into good and evil. In Palermo, he writes to get an energy-sapping lovesickness out of his system. In Fukushima, he experiences a most profound humility – and in Rio, a terrific mental blackout. He looks for his homeland between Amsterdam, Neukölln, Eastern Westphalia and the High Atlas. And answers the question as to how a hotel room can be transformed into a home in no time at all.

Basic information about the author
Helge Timmerberg was born in Hessen in 1952. The journalist lives in St.Gallen and writes travelogues from all over the world. He contributes to the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Zeit newspapers, and to the magazines Stern, Spiegel and Playboy. His books include Im Palast der gläsernen Schwäne (In the palace of the glass swans), Tiger fressen keine Yogis (Tigers don’t eat yogis), Das Haus der sprechenden Tiere (The house of the speaking animals), Shiva-Moon, In 80 Tagen um die Welt (Around the world in 80 days), Der Jesus vom Sexshop (Jesus from the sex shop) and African Queen.

Picture: Fotolia/Patrick Daxenbichler